So I'd listened to Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest at work a couple times over the past week. Last night I finally had time for a proper sit down and listen on the he-man stereo, in the dark late at night.

And guess what? Turns out that whole album is nightmare fuel. Instead of streamlining and refining their work to the utmost polish, they'd used their years since the last album to pack it to the absolute brim with half-audible voices, up to and including (on "Telepath") a staticky voice in the background coaxing a numbers radio station voice to "do it again." The melodic numbers serve not so much to provide relief as to provide the shallow reassurance that although the horror is real, things are okay as long as it hasn't fulfilled its purposeless inevitability yet.

I think I slept about 45 minutes between going to bed and going to work this morning.

So I'd listened to Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest at work a couple times over the past week. Last night I finally had time for a proper sit down and listen on the he-man stereo, in the dark late at night.

And guess what? Turns out that whole album is nightmare fuel. Instead of streamlining and refining their work to the utmost polish, they'd used their years since the last album to pack it to the absolute brim with half-audible voices, up to and including (on "Telepath") a staticky voice in the background coaxing a numbers radio station voice to "do it again." The melodic numbers serve not so much to provide relief as to provide the shallow reassurance that although the horror is real, things are okay as long as it hasn't fulfilled its purposeless inevitability yet.

I think I slept about 45 minutes between going to bed and going to work this morning.

I tried only once or twice, but maybe not with the proper level of attention, and could not get engaged in the music...helped me sleep more than anything else :)

So anyway. Conclusion: I have to recalibrate my pigeonholing of Tomorrow's Harvest. I'd previously considered it a return to the dark whimsy of Music has a Right to Children. It's more like spending a holiday locked in an abandoned mental institution.

Yeah, it's a bit better nowadays, or at least physically. While I was gone I got an actual diagnose to my depression (bipolar, most likely type II) so it's been a bit upside down for me. How to accept a fact like that and plan my life according to the diagnose and you know, not knowing whether this or that or anything else... but I then later realized that I'm just going to let life go on like it always did, except for adjusting medication and that I now have a fuller understanding of my behaviour (all these projects that I take upon me or start with most of them just flat out failing..). This can be used to my strength and I will do so, to the best of my abilities.

I'm very sorry to here this. At least you have a diagnosis to go on. You know you're not alone on this my friend. If you need anyone to talk to we can talk via PM.

So guys the vacation is going well typed a whole wall of txt but the phone decided to load a new page and make me lose it all.

Japan airlines = SUGOIIIIIIIII^infinite.
There was a problem with the reservations at one hotel, so there was an up to a villa at a 3rd of the price for the villa.
Country side is nice.
I'll up the pics for you guys when I'm done
Arm's doing fine now except for when I put strain on it (swimming). Thanks Warren, the pepto helped save me from misery.
And to dream of head-fi while on a trip... dreamt of a lot of weird stuff. But last night's dream was of head-fi with a custom of Mr. Hamburger with some other funny stuff attached to it...

Well, I won't probably be back until trip 's over or I have a strong urge to get on (had to resist).

I see from this collecting below that you have taken a stricter focus on music (and movies, let's just call it art) in your diary posts instead of headphones (although you seem infatuated with fostex and lcd-1). I like it a lot!

Yeah, I've been enjoying the shift in focus. When I talk about gear I want it to be a more holistic sort of thing rather than just outlining characteristics. I know folks find the latter beneficial, but for me it just sucks all the joy out of it.

I know you've been busy with life and personal matters, but I hope you found some time here and there to enjoy some music (or any form of art, really) yourself!

We certainly missed your presence here. You are one of the regulars, after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ardgedee

So anyway. Conclusion: I have to recalibrate my pigeonholing of Tomorrow's Harvest. I'd previously considered it a return to the dark whimsy of Music has a Right to Children. It's more like spending a holiday locked in an abandoned mental institution.

Thanks for the update. I enjoy reading changing perceptions of albums over time, especially something as dense and in need of unpacking as BoC's stuff.

The samples are definitely unnerving, though for me BoC's stuff doesn't really connote environmental restriction. I tend to hear their sound as very open for whatever reason, oddly "natural" as a whole given all of the artificial qualities on an individual level. For me there's this undercurrent of nature throughout the body of their work (and Harvest is no exception in that respect), and any indoor environments in my mind's eye are usually abandoned as you say, but also overrun and exposed to the surrounding environment. I think the album artwork for Harvest is spot on in that respect: a cityscape set against the backdrop of a dawn sky, a feeling of things past. I can visualize sitting in a broken down car looking over the scene, the radio mostly picking up static but every once in a while spitting out one of those garbled broadcasts.

CdC, I won't pretend to know the feeling of getting a diagnosis like that, but I sincerely believe that I know you can make it work to your benefit. Stay strong!
Something different coming out from my today.

I thought of something on how I like my everyday life (while I took my shower): I like when I have a structured routine built around a schedule from a higher administration power, e.g. schedule of classes, etc. I like it when I can expect this and that to happen at such and such time, so that I can work around them with what I really wanted to do, such as rest, read novels, listen to music, etc.

But after finding myself with this new freedom (SO FREE), I am bored stiff. If before I can always manage to squeeze time for leisure; and, let’s be honest, it usually results in procrastination of more important stuff; now, I just don’t have the drive to do anything. It’s so weird, I think. This also happened back when I just finished my school years 6 years ago (that long already?).

No solution came to mind.
Today is groceries shopping day (more like I-have-to-go-out-today-to-not-starve day). 808 PV in pocket, with the appropriate app to play my FLAC files, my FXT90 in my ears, hit play and out I go. As I was crossing a main road and about to turn towards the bus stop, I remembered a recent xkcd comic that is rather sobering in this current busy lifestyle most adopted: http://xkcd.com/1227/

The one thing that popped up at that moment is, and I paraphrase: long walks are often neglected. With that quip in mind, I turned the opposite direction from the bus stop, and decided to walk to the supermarket. It’s not that far away actually; at the pace that I took, which is a leisurely pace relatively to what I usually am on; just mere 15 minutes. And what relaxing and blissful 15 minutes that is. Just walking, listening to more of my Japanese songs, only on random and no specific album, to the supermarket. And such a bonus too that today is a sunny yet windy day to go for a walk.

Sure, 15 minutes might not seem like such a long walk after all; and honestly, I want more directionlessness; but relatively, this is a needed change of pace on my end, I feel.

Maybe I need more of these walks, just to dispel the monotony of sitting at my desk doing **** all, staring at the screen, trawling the internet for another minute of fleeting, forgettable stimulation. Even if I put on some music, my mind would be in such a meh state that I usually won’t register what I am listening to and whoosh it goes in my head like a passing, odourless fart in an empty lecture hall.

You should post you self reflections more, jgray. I enjoyed reading that.

I think it's rather normal for individuals to crave structure in their lives. I'm the same way. Just a suggestion: try some independent study maybe? Just because you don't have class doesn't mean you have to stop learning. Set goals like reading a certain amount each day or writing a certain amount. If you need some kind of authority figure, then treat the author of the book or material you're reading as your interim teacher.

On the subject of audio gear...

Liquid Glass + Abyss AB-1266 = pure win.

I just got my Liquid Lightning 2 in too, but tbh I haven't listened to it much yet since the above setup is getting all of my head time.

Today I just had my worst day, My school bus came half an hour late so I had to stand out and freeze half to death. Then when I go home, wanting to listen to my XBA 3's I realize I lost them. I came to the conclusion that I threw my XBA 3's in the bin accidently.

You'd think that they're uncomfortable because of the weight right? What with them being all metal and all... But honestly, the comfort strap does wonders to alleviate that. I'm had these on for most of the day, about 7 hours now, and it's just fine. Earlier in the day, when it was kind of hot, I took them off a few times just to "breathe" and cool off.

I have not heard the D5000 or any Ultrasones outside of the Pro 650 I used to have. FWIW, it kicks the Pro 650's ass!

OMG gelocks, you would LOVE these. The bass isn't C300-strong, but you'll never complain about it being not enough... and it's done quite well. It also comes with it's own stand (insta-buy)! J/K

Yeah, I mean, they might look great and might even sound good, but comfort is something I always look for! Don't say words like "insta-buy" to me man!!! LOL How is everything else though, it seems you are enjoying them with a variety of genres so it seems to do well overall. Do you think it compares similarly to any other full-sized can you've had? I should just stop looking at them... ....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mimouille

Donnie Yen is still puttting out some crazy stuff...I bought a set with ALL his movies for nothing here in China (like 40 movies or so). Awesome. Go watch on youtube the last fight in Flashpoint (do not to pollute the thread with too much Kung Fu, not sure Muppet likes it...

I watched The Raid and loved it. I saw also Merantau, also really nice. One of the bad guys is a French martial artists who actually trained with Shaolin monks !

The guys from the Raid also did another movie I need to watch, do not remember the title just now.

Scott Adkins is one of my favorites.did you see all he did ?

I would love that set!

Can you provide any links or something? And more importantly, is the quality good and subtitles Ok? Or are they from some of those "bootleg" companies that take shortcuts and just compiles all the movies they can into 1 package? Oh, and I already own Flashpoint . I have bought a lot of movies from the Dragon Dynasty house. They have put PROPER transfers and special features to most of their catalogue. If you are not familiar with them:

The cost of freedom is too much; it has taken away my mental capacity of remembering things that I found interesting that requires time to digest. NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I AM BONED.

Now I Love you jgray!!!

MF, here you go, you should probably put this on the First Post of this thread! ;-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mimouille

I tried only once or twice, but maybe not with the proper level of attention, and could not get engaged in the music...helped me sleep more than anything else :)